Question

For each of the following situations, determine which measure of central tendency is most appropriate and justify your reasoning.

A. Typical number on the jersey of a player in the National Hockey League.

B. Most requested song at a radio station

C. Average test score when the scores are skewed right

D. Most popular major for students enrolled in a statistics course

Answer 1

A. Since the numbers on the jerseys of different players would be different, a useful approach will be to find a number that is on most of the jerseys. Hence, mode will be the suitable measure.

B. Since the Mode represent the value occurring the maximum no. of times in a data set, it will be the most appropriate for this situation.

C. When the distribution is skewed, median is the appropriate measure of central tendency.

D. Similar to (B) above, mode will also be suitable here.